Cave City Tepe-Kermen,Crimea, Russia

Tepe-Kermen is a lonely cone-shaped mountain, on which people settled, resembling a volcano in shape. It was part of the Inner Ridge, which is gradually being destroyed, and remained in the form of a lonely "Crimean Vesuvius" with a height of 543 meters above sea level. Tepe-Kermen, from Türkic means the Peak-Fortress, is visible from afar. It is more convenient to climb it along the path on the north-eastern side of the mountain, although you can approach the steep rocks with caves of the lower tier from either side. On an excursion to Tepe-Kermen, they climb a plateau along the usual trail.

Caves of Tepe-Kermen

Unapproachable Tepe-Kermen

Cliffs of Tepe-Kerman

 It is believed that the fortress on this mountain began to build in the VI century. On an insignificant area of ​​1.4 hectares, about 250 caves have been cut down for various purposes: dwellings, warehouses, cellars, defensive, cult (churches) and funerary premises. After the trip to Tepe-Kermen, it seems that the city is oversaturated with caves, that the rock is thinned and the veto will disintegrate from these endless, eating cavities in six tiers. From all sides of the horizon, the mountain looks like a waste pit of a mine, and from the east it looks like a huge ship that cuts through a transparent ocean of air through which dry land is visible - boulders, trees, overgrown mountains. Photos of Tepe-Kerman can be viewed in our Crimean photo album.

The walls here were blocked only by the most important sections of the plateau, where there are no cliffs and where the enemy could easily climb up the slope. There, for a reliable defense, hollowed out caves-casemates. The guard room in the south-west of the plateau could serve as the base for a special watch tower.

Slopes of Tepe-Kerman

View of the cave city of Tepe-Kermen

Tepe-Kermen - Cape

Unlike the neighboring ancient settlement-long-liver, Tepe-Kermen was too uncomfortable for a normal, at least for a tolerable life. There are no wells. Residents had to collect rainwater through a system of grooves in special stone tanks. The city did not last long, and then only as a military fortress. On the plateau are the remains of some buildings. In the central part of the ancient settlement, archaeologists have dug up the foundations of a four-room house, whose walls have remained conical in the formations of the 9th-10th centuries for the installation of clay barrels (pithos).

It is interesting to see a cave church of the 8th century carved into the north-eastern cliff edge. The temple is rectangular, with rounded corners, a flat ceiling and a semicircular altarpiece. Graves are cut down in the floor.

There is a special feature of the cave church - a window opening of an irregular shape, which can only be explained by those dedicated to the secret of the cave city of Tepe-Kermen. This mystery, accidentally discovered by local lore. On Easter day, the rising sun shines through the cave window - and on the opposite wall appears the exact form of the cross.

On the "nose" of the Tepe-Kermen plateau there was a lonely vertical stone, from which a shadow falls on the platform. Previously, it was a large cave with arches, along which (and under which) adults and children loved to walk. In those years, few more tourists came to Tepe-Kermen. The vault cracked and was about to collapse. People who came here for the first time somehow do not believe that rock strongholds can collapse under their feet. However, the rock collapsed and filled the cave in the late 80's, fortunately, on a rainy day (or night) of a deserted off-season.

There is little room for hunting, there is no place to dig a vegetable garden, and most importantly - there is no water on the plateau. In one of the walls there was a niche, from which a small source had once broken through, but it was too long ago ...

The Grottoes on Tepe-Kermen

Church with baptistery

Crypt

And yet, even now, on warm southern slopes, several caves are inhabited by restless tourists, not only in summer but also in winter. These "rooms" are equipped with dishes, covered with sheets. To understand how people lived here, we must try everything by ourselves!

The deep valley is divided by the site of Tepe-Kermen and the neighboring Kyz-Kermen. Between them, at the bottom of the valley, there is a motor depot of a military town, also obsolete. The "defensive objects" of the Middle Ages and the twentieth century look at each other. Their destination is the same, but the fate is different. The first has long been a museum, the objects of the second are just waiting for their turn to be melted down ...

Tepe-Kermen - the least explored cave city. Here, only occasional excavations were carried out. Random finds can be called a coin of 1305, several bells, a cross, green and blue fragments of glass bracelets, a cheek plaque of horse harness, fragments of a glass lamp ...